Fantasy Basketball Top Plays and Fades, Friday February 8

Welcome into the Friday edition of Fantasy Basketball Top Plays and Fades! We have eight games tonight and the slate is still feeling the effects of yesterday’s trade deadline.

Anthony Davis might still be in New Orleans for a few more months but that doesn’t mean the trade deadline wasn’t crazy. There’s a lot of names in new places and that does have ramifications on tonight still. We’ll touch on that as we move along for some teams, but this fantasy basketball top plays slate looks like a lot of fun and at least you know a player won’t get traded mid-game tonight.

Fantasy Basketball – Point Guard

Fantasy Basketball Top Plays –Jeff Teague, Wolves

This one does come with a bit of a disclaimer. I’m expecting Teague to play tonight since he sat last night but it is certainly possible he won’t due to the injury that has been holding him out lately.

If he doesn’t, I would make the effort to pay a little more for Jerryd Bayless, who has really played well in the absence of Derrick Rose and Teague. I also want to monitor the minutes for Teague through the day. Basically, I want to attack the Pelicans with whatever point guard is left standing in Minnesota.

The Pelicans play at a very high pace and they have struggled with point guards all season long. They’re giving up the fourth most DK points and the Wolves have fewer bodies to throw on the floor than a lot of other teams. We know Teague is a solid fantasy producer when he’s on the floor with a mark of 0.97 FPPM. At a pretty low price point, Teague is an easy fit tonight(and Bayless is only $200 more on DraftKings).

Honorable Mention – Eric Bledsoe, Bucks(Khris Middleton is out)

Fantasy Basketball Fade – Ben Simmons, 76ers

This one is also a disclaimer because if Joel Embiid winds up being out, this fade goes right out the window. However, if Embiid plays I’m going to make a fade of basically the entire Philly team.

When you add a player to a team that already has Simmons, Embiid and Jimmy Butler, there’s really no way to tell how they mesh the first few games, not to mention the first time around.

Lest we forget, both Embiid and Butler have had moments of unhappiness with their roles in the Philly offense.

Now we have added in a player like Harris that is plenty more than just a role player and I’m not about to pay full price for Sixers if all four are active with it being a total mystery as to what will happen. I would suspect Simmons is still a relatively safe option since he should still run the offense often but I’m not convinced there’s any upside here.

Honorable Mention – Reggie Jackson, Pistons

Fantasy Basketball – Shooting Guard

Fantasy Basketball Top Plays – Bradley Beal, Wizards

Anytime Bradley Beal is under $9,000 on DK, he’s going to pop into my mind as a potential play. Now we throw in a great match-up and the fact that Otto Porter is in Chicago and Beal jumps from a potential play to a fantastic play.

Shooting guard can be a bit of a rough position and I’m liking the idea of using Beal in a lot of lineups tonight.

Without Porter, Bel doesn’t get a huge bump in usage or anything like that but he’s still going to get his minutes and everything he normally has had. Now there’s just more opportunity and the Cavs give up the seventh most DK points to the position.

In three meetings so far, Beal has averaged 26 points and that’s while playing five minutes under his normal allotment on the season. If he gets his normal 37 minutes tonight, a second straight 30 real point game is well within reach.

Honorable Mention – D’Angelo Russell, Nets

Fantasy Basketball Fade – Jrue Holiday, Pelicans 

It’s not that I don’t think Holiday can have a very solid game here and I think there’s safety for cash settings.

This is more of the fact that the Pelicans are going to actually have Anthony Davis back in the lineup for the first time in a few weeks and Holiday is still priced like Davis will be on the sideline. On top of that, Julius Randle also re-entered the lineup to put a little ding on Holiday.

Just looking at the stats, bringing AD and Randle onto the floor with Holiday isn’t the biggest deal for his usage and FPPM.

That’s why I still believe there is some safety built in, but it’s exactly why the ceiling game is far less likely. Davis is going to be fuming that A. he didn’t get traded and B. the Pelicans considered sitting him the rest of the way. Beal is cheaper on DK and the same price on FD and to me, that choice is easy.

Honorable Mention – Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kings

Fantasy Basketball – Small Forward

Fantasy Basketball Top Plays – Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks

I wasn’t originally planning on writing up one of the best players in the NBA and he would have been the honorable mention. However, as I was writing the article, Khris Middleton was ruled out for rest purposes.

With that news, you can make a very strong argument to start your build with Bledsoe and Antetokounmpo, then build it outwards from there.

The match-up in the paint is likely fairly deceiving because Dallas currently ranks inside the top 10 in points and rebounds given up in the paint. It’s important to remember that those stats came when they had a premier rebounder who is top eight in the league in paint touches in DeAndre Jordan.

With him eating the glass in New York now, Dallas is going to be vulnerable around the rim. Since it’s going to take a team effort to try and collapse around the rim, the Greek Freak has a ton off assist potential tonight as well. He’s one of the elite plays on the slate.

Honorable Mention – Justise Winslow, Heat

Fantasy Basketball Fade – Harrison Barnes, Kings 

There might be some excitement around Barnes tonight since he was involved in a highly publicized trade. I think he’s a solid fit for what Sacramento is trying to do for the rest of this season and the future, but I’m pretty certain I won’t be using much of him tonight for a couple reasons.

The first is(you guessed it) we have no clue how he fits into the Kings plans/offense. I’m assuming he carves out a nice role eventually, but the odds of getting dropped into it and meshing with an established offense isn’t easy.

The other reason is it’s not exactly like he was ripping it up in Dallas.  Luka Doncic was running the offense and the only time we saw Barnes do a whole lot was the rare  game Doncic missed or Dallas was severely shorthanded. The Kings won’t be short and have Alec Burks to integrate as well, leaving Barnes off the table for me.

Honorable Mention – DeMarre Carroll, Nets

Fantasy Basketball – Power Forward

Fantasy Basketball Top Plays – Anthony Davis, Pelicans 

I know, it’s three high priced studs in a row. I try not to do that all the time and if I have to pick just one, I might roll with Antetokounmpo before any of them. Still, it’s going to be really difficult to ignore Davis in his return to the Pelicans lineup.

Unless you’ve been on a different planet, you know all the speculation and everything else that has surrounded the Pelicans and Davis the past couple of weeks. For now, that is over and it’s time for Davis to suit up once again.

The Brow gets a Minnesota team on a back to back and that happens to be the team that is giving up plenty of points.

They’re in the bottom half of the league in total points and even though they have been solid in the paint and against centers, I have a feeling Davis is going to want to prove a lot tonight. He wanted to get back into the lineup a couple games ago and he’s going to want to remind teams what they’re trading for this summer.

Honorable Mention – Larry Nance, Cavs

Fantasy Basketball Fade – Josh Jackson, Suns 

I didn’t really love him in Utah this past game, even with Devin Booker out of the lineup. That totally burned me as Jackson put up over 50 fantasy points and helped sink my night because I had none of him. Tonight is the night that he pays me back because regardless of Booker playing or not, I’m not getting on board with Jackson at his inflated price point tonight.

Especially if Booker remains out, this game is likely going to get pretty ugly. I can’t see any way that Phoenix can keep it close with the Warriors and they bench players are likely in by the fourth.

While Jackson could get some garbage time run there, the three quarters before that are likely spent trying to deal with Draymond Green and Kevin Durant defense. That’s not a matchup I’m going to get too excited about, especially with Jackson.

Honorable Mention – Kenrich Williams, Pelicans

Fantasy Basketball – Center

Fantasy Basketball Top Plays – DeMarcus Cousins, Warriors 

It’s a pretty rare thing that I target a player that I know will not exceed roughly 25 minutes and isn’t exactly cheap. The thing about Boogie Cousins is he’s a pretty rare player and I might have a good bit of him tonight, at least on FD.

Even on DK where I have the positional flexibility for a lot of other players, he’s under $7,000 and might not need a whole lot of time to hit value tonight seeing who the opponent is.

Part of it might just be the Warriors feeding him the ball and part of it could be Cousins has just always had a massive usage but so far, he’s sitting at 1.50 FPPM and a 30.6 percent usage rate.

Now he gets a match-up against the weak Suns and they have given up the second most DK points to centers on the season. If Cousins can make it to just 20 minutes, he should be perfectly fine tonight.

Honorable Mention – Hassan Whiteside, Heat(GPP only)

Fantasy Basketball Fade – Thomas Bryant, Wizards

I flat refuse to bite on the monster game Bryant just put up even though it is not a bad spot with no Tristan Thompson. I highly doubt that Bryant would be any sort of chalk, so I really don’t worry about that angle.

What it boils down to for me is that the young man hasn’t even sniffed consistency other than a four or five game stretch when John Wall was first hurt and you could get a floor game this time out. He could be worth a GPP shot but that would be it for me.

The confusing part of Bryant has been on display the past two games as well. Two games ago, he got an incredible match-up against the Hawks, played 11 minutes and was terrible. This past game, he gets one of the stingier match-ups against centers and he flat out dominates.

The only thing that would change my mind is if the Wizards say he’s in line for more minutes because of the Otto Porter trade. Even then, Bobby Portis could be active and ready to go for this one.

Honorable Mention – DeAndre Jordan, Knicks

Stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the latest NBA DFS news and anayysis each and every day!